Eysenck’s Criminal Personality Theory

Overview

This lecture introduces psychological explanations of offending behavior, focusing on Eysenck’s personality theory of the criminal and its evaluation.

Psychological Explanations of Offending: Overview

• Psychological perspectives view offending as caused by internal mental processes, not only biological factors.
• The series covers Eysenck (personality type), Kohlberg (moral reasoning), Sutherland (socialization), and Freud (childhood experience).

Eysenck’s Personality Theory and Biology

• Eysenck argues personality type is largely determined by the nervous system, which is influenced by genetic makeup.
• Because the nervous system is inherited, his theory overlaps with biological explanations of offending behavior.
• The nervous system influences responses like fight or flight, affecting how strongly someone reacts to threats or stimulation.
• A more reactive or under-aroused nervous system may increase the likelihood of risky or offending behavior.

Eysenck’s Three Personality Dimensions

Extrovert–Introvert

• Extroverts: outgoing, attention-seeking, drawn to excitement and risk.
• Explanation: extroverts have a chronically under-aroused nervous system and seek stimulation to raise arousal.
• Extroverts are harder to condition or socialize; they do not easily learn from mistakes or punishment.
• Introverts: have an over-aroused nervous system and tend to avoid stimulation and attention.

Neurotic–Stable

• Neurotic individuals: have nervous systems that are easily triggered; they are anxious, easily upset, and may show obsessive behaviors.
• Stable individuals: less easily triggered; remain calm even in stressful situations due to less reactive nervous systems.

Psychoticism (Low–High)

• Psychoticism concerns how much emotion and empathy a person feels.
• High psychoticism: emotionally cold, lack empathy for others’ suffering.
• Eysenck expected most people to score low on psychoticism, unlike the other two dimensions which follow a normal distribution.

The Criminal Personality Type (Eysenck)

• Criminal personality is described as:
  • Highly extroverted
  • Highly neurotic
  • High in psychoticism
• Logic: such individuals
  • Seek constant risky, stimulating activities.
  • Fail to learn from consequences and punishment.
  • Are easily triggered into fight-or-flight, with emphasis on aggressive “fight” responses.
  • Are not emotionally concerned about others’ pain or suffering.

Summary Table: Eysenck’s Personality Dimensions and Criminality

Supporting Evidence for Eysenck: McGurk and McDougall

• Study compared 100 convicted inmates with 100 students using Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire.
• Students and offenders were from similar trade-based backgrounds (e.g., bricklaying).
• All participants were aged 17–20.
• Findings: the delinquent group had more individuals scoring as extrovert, neurotic, and psychotic, as Eysenck predicted.

Study Summary Table

Criticisms and Alternative Personality Explanations

Stability of Personality and Offending Rates

• Eysenck assumes inherited nervous systems lead to stable personality across the lifespan and a single criminal personality type.
• Real-world data: offending levels are up to 10 times higher in adolescence than in adulthood.
• This age pattern does not fit a single, lifelong, fixed criminal personality explanation.

Moffitt’s Dual Taxonomy

• Moffitt proposes two offender groups:
  • Life-course persistent offenders: commit crimes across their lives.
  • Adolescent-limited offenders: show antisocial behavior only in adolescence, then stop in adulthood.
• This dual taxonomy fits observed offending patterns better than a single criminal personality type.

Modern Personality Theories: Five Factor Model

• Modern theorists argue three dimensions are too simplistic.
• Digman’s Five Factor Model adds two dimensions:
  • Conscientiousness: effort to carry out responsibilities properly, reliability, and self-discipline.
  • Agreeableness: friendliness, cooperativeness, and consideration for others.
• Including conscientiousness and agreeableness gives a more rounded explanation of criminality.
• Many people are neurotic and extroverted but are not criminal, suggesting other traits matter.

Biological Evidence and Determinism Concerns

• There is significant biological evidence that some offending behavior has biological and neural bases.
• Eysenck’s personality types could be psychological expressions of underlying biological factors.
• This raises determinism issues: if biology determines personality and offending, is “biology destiny”?
• Ethical and legal question: should personality type be considered when deciding prison sentences?

Key Terms & Definitions

• Offending behavior: actions that break the law or are antisocial and punishable.
• Personality: relatively stable patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.
• Nervous system: biological system controlling responses (e.g., fight or flight) to stimuli and threats.
• Extroversion: trait involving sociability, outgoing behavior, and seeking external stimulation.
• Introversion: trait involving preference for low stimulation, quiet, and limited social interaction.
• Neuroticism: tendency toward anxiety, emotional instability, and easily triggered stress responses.
• Stability (emotional): calmness and low emotional reactivity, even under stress.
• Psychoticism: trait describing emotional coldness and lack of empathy.
• Conditioning/socialization: learning from experience, rewards, and punishments to follow social rules.
• Life-course persistent offender: person who shows offending behavior consistently across the lifespan.
• Adolescent-limited offender: person whose antisocial behavior is mainly confined to adolescence.
• Conscientiousness: personality trait reflecting reliability, organization, and responsibility.
• Agreeableness: personality trait reflecting friendliness, trust, and concern for others.
• Biological determinism: the idea that biological factors fix behavior, leaving little room for free will.

Action Items / Next Steps

• Review Eysenck’s three personality dimensions and how each links to criminal behavior.
• Compare Eysenck’s theory with Moffitt’s dual taxonomy and Digman’s Five Factor Model.
• Practice applying Eysenck’s theory to exam-style forensic psychology questions.
• Prepare for the next topic: cognitive explanations of offending behavior (e.g., moral reasoning).